Masafu Okwara is a lawyer and activist in Kenya who has devoted her life to standing up for queer people who are suffering at the hands of the country’s discriminatory legal system. She works as a program officer for longtime partner National Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) in Nairobi, offering free legal aid …
Read More
For years, I spent the High Holidays in Fire Island. Beginning in the mid-1920s, this barrier reef about 60 miles from Manhattan has served as a haven for gay New Yorkers. Although it’s a raucous social scene from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the feverish party vibe dissipates by mid-September when Fire Island Jews—gay and …
Read More
A number of anti-LGBTI organizations participated in a three-day religious freedom conference the State Department held this week in D.C. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Thursday tweeted a picture of Family Research Council President Tony Perkins “welcoming attendees” of a workshop that focused on U.S. government grants.
Read More
Twenty-four years ago, I made a promise that has shaped my life and my work ever since. My beloved partner, Eddie, a talented musician, was dying of AIDS. At the time, we felt powerless, isolated and angry. In 1992, there were no effective medical treatments and there was no hope for recovery. There was too …
Read More
Advocacy groups have applauded the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Administrator Gayle Smith for ensuring that LGBT people will have equal access to services and aid delivered by contractors and sub-contractors of USAID that work internationally. This policy, announced Wednesday in a speech by National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice at American …
Read More